Erdogan is not simply a populist and nationalist who also uses religion (even though he s a typical opportunist and definitely not a pious person). He also imprisons the opposition, silences media etc. This is typically called a dictator. The 'collective' did not make any of those decisions , he did
The current mayor of Istanbul is the politician who could win the next presidential election and he's been sentenced to a few years in prison and banned him from politics because he "insulted some elected officials". His crime was actually calling a few people clowns when they recalled for a runoff of the elections he won. He then won the runoff with a wider margin and now has to be taken down somehow.
I don't have a horse in this race, but you do not get to change definitions...to accommodate your worldview.
This "dictator" - from wikipedia:
In the June 2011 elections, Erdoğan's governing party won 327 seats (49.83% of the popular vote) making Erdoğan the only prime minister in Turkey's history to win three consecutive general elections, each time receiving more votes than the previous election. The second party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), received 135 seats (25.94%), the nationalist MHP received 53 seats (13.01%), and the Independents received 35 seats (6.58%).
To be clear, i'm not questioning (nor I have an opinion on) any of your prior Erdogan coloring, except of course the usage of the word "dictator".
